HYPOCHONDRIA OF THE HEART

From a 17th century medical illness to a permanent modern condition, nostalgia fell through the cracks of academic disciplines becoming a hypochondria of the heart to be treated by poets and artists. This poetic meditation on nostalgia focuses around Harvard professor, artist and immigrant Svetlana Boym. Creating art that tells of the longing for a home that no longer exists or perhaps has never existed, Svetlana builds meaning from fragments of memory, taking the audience on a journey through the art and science of nostalgia, celebrating the past layers and sediments of stories surrounding us. Weaving together various new and archival materials, the film delves into the essence of memory, prompting us to ask what is that we see when we reminisce – the past, a theatre or the work of art of our own memory?